


Proof

by KCMarsala



Series: Reylo One Shots [6]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Immaculate Conception via Force-Fueled Hand-Touching, Unexpected Pregnancy, force induced pregnancy, implied talk of abortion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 11:45:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14354796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KCMarsala/pseuds/KCMarsala
Summary: Turns out that hand touching in TLJ wasn't just "as close to sex" as Star Wars is ever likely to get, it *was* sex! Well, at least the business end of it, if not the fun part... But, while the awareness of impending fatherhood is enough to send Ben running from the First Order, Rey doesn't quite trust him. First, she needs...proof.





	Proof

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zomadan](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Zomadan).



Rey felt the air settle in heavy around her, the distinctive sensation alerting her to his presence even before she looked up. But when she saw him standing there across the room, those beautiful eyes she both craved and despised staring at her with concern etched through their depths, the rage that bubbled up within her was immediate and irrepressible.

“You told me I wasn’t alone!” she accused, launching herself at him and striking him repeatedly.

Devolving at once into a weeping mess, she cried and beat at his chest as his arms wrapped around her and he crouched with her to the floor, holding and supporting her firmly. Caught in an endless loop of misery and despair, she nevertheless couldn’t help but notice the comfort his embrace offered, the warmth of his scent washing over her as he leaned down and pressed his lips to her temple.

“I hate you!” she gasped, her voice impeded and broken by sobs and sniffles. “I hate the Force! I wish I’d never left Jakku!”

“Rey…”

The timbre of his voice, the feel of it vibrating through her body and mind finally shook her back to her senses. Pushing herself firmly out of his arms, she fought her way to standing and turned away from him. Wiping furiously at her face, she focused inward, searching for the traitorous barrier against him in her mind and frowning when she found it sealed tight. Startled, she glanced at him with a furious expression as she yanked the barrier open and slammed it shut once again. He flinched a little, as if he’d felt that, but otherwise nothing changed. She tried it again and again, quickly becoming desperate to lock him out of her consciousness, but still he remained.

“Stop that!” he demanded suddenly, his body twitching violently with the last of her attempts to block him from her. “It’s obviously not working.”

“Why not?” she roared in a frustrated rage.

“I’m not here through our bond.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, further enraged by him both ascribing this awful connection between them to a bond and implying it was something they shared jointly.

“Then how?”

“I don’t know. Who is Aileen?”

Startled, Rey’s hand ghosted across her belly and she immediately shoved it away. But, of course, those keen eyes of his missed nothing and his gaze narrowed.

“She begged me to come with her. And when I agreed, I found myself here with you.”

Rey’s eyes widened, fear seizing her. She didn’t want him to know. He _couldn’t_ know!

“Rey… Who is Aileen?”

“I don’t know,” Rey answered, quite truthfully in some sense.

His gaze darkened further as he approached her. Rey’s body trembled violently as she backed away from him and fought for the strength to reassert control over this rapidly deteriorating situation.

“Why would someone I don’t know be able to connect me to you, just like our bond does?”

Rey shook her head desperately and turned away as fresh tears squeezed from her eyes, but he caught her wrist and held her fast, not allowing her to retreat. Then, before she could anticipate his action, his hand was on her belly. She cried out, gripping his arm in both her hands and attempting to push him away, but he held her fast. His eyes closed in concentration, entirely ignoring her struggles against him.

“Aileen is your daughter,” he murmured.

Then his hand flinched against her, his eyes opened in shock, and he released her entirely. He stared at her as she backed slowly away from him, his gaze steadily darkening.

“Aileen is _our_ daughter. And you’re considering—”

“I don’t know!” she wailed suddenly, her eyes wild and desperate. “I don’t want this! I don’t want _her_! I wanted nothing more than to _serve_ the Force, to accept my place in it, to use it to help people, and this is how it repays me, by planting a child — _your_ child! — inside me without my consent and no one believes that’s how it happened, they all think I _fucked_ you and I must have _enjoyed_ it because I’m not claiming that you _raped_ me, and I don’t want any part in this! I wish I’d never found BB-8, I wish I’d never met Finn, I wish I’d never left Jakku, and I wish I’d never known about the Force or the First Order or _you_!”

She stood there, breathing heavily and erratically as she stared in abject misery at him while wanting nothing more than to fling herself into his arms again and lose her consciousness in the oblivion his embrace promised. And she hated herself for it.

“I wish you’d killed _me_ in that throne room instead of Snoke.”

The words hung like poison in the air, tainting her very existence as she turned aside in miserable defeat, shoulders slumped and legs promptly giving out as she collapsed in slow motion to the floor.

_Aileen…_

She hadn’t even known it was a girl she carried, let alone that the fetal consciousness had already chosen a name for herself. When she’d learned of the pregnancy six days ago, it had taken some adjustment but she’d quickly come to accept it. After all, spontaneous conception through the Force, while rare, was not entirely unheard of. She could adapt to what the Force was asking of her and had even begun to think perhaps this was just what she needed: a family of her own, a chance to right the wrongs she’d endured in being abandoned by her parents.

But then the vision had come, revealing to her that this whole thing was not quite as random as she’d assumed. Kylo Ren was the child’s father, his genetic material having been stolen from him the moment their fingers touched across the vast distance of the galaxy. Suddenly, this pregnancy seemed less a gift and more an imposition, a betrayal and violation of her body and trust in the Force. And when she’d tentatively confided the cause for her melancholy in Finn, she’d been greeted with wholly unexpected accusations regarding her obsession with the First Order’s Supreme Leader and what precisely had happened during her unsanctioned jaunt to the _Supremacy_.

“I surrender.”

Stunned and confused, his words having yanked her back from the isolated realm of her thoughts, Rey’s tears suspended instantly as she looked up at him looming over her. He nodded emphatically as if renewing his resolve, then dropped to one knee before her, causing her to jerk backward in surprise at the unexpected move.

“Tell me where to go, and I’ll surrender willingly to the Resistance. You can do what you want with me, execute me, whatever, I don’t care. Just…Rey…”

He peered intently into her soul, and the pain that was reflected so clearly in his eyes tore at her heart.

“Please don’t terminate the pregnancy,” he pleaded in sincere wretchedness. “Don’t steal our daughter’s life before she’s even had a chance to live it.”

Rey stared, finding the same desperation in his eyes that she’d seen when he’d asked her to join him in ruling the galaxy after they had defeated Snoke and his Praetorian Guard together. And, just like then, she found herself sorely tempted to accept his proposal, the pleading in his eyes pulling inexorably at her soul. But she knew exactly what would happen if he surrendered to the Resistance. They would execute him in a heartbeat, and she knew just as quickly that she couldn’t endure that. It was bad enough locking him out of her mind, denying him the place in her psyche that she instinctively knew belonged to him. But to imagine him _dead_ , that place inside her remaining achingly empty for the full remainder of her life… It was an unbearable thought.

“No,” she finally responded resolutely. “You can’t surrender. That’s not what I want.”

“What _do_ you want?”

She blinked at him, tears suddenly flowing once more.

“I don’t know, Ben,” she moaned miserably. “I just don’t know.”

Her gaze fell to her hands, wringing together in her lap, and she gasped audibly when his large, strong hands encased hers, smothering them in warmth as they held her fast.

“Let me tell you what _I_ want.”

Although he hadn’t phrased it as a question, the entreaty for permission was clear in his impossibly gentle voice. Rey nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“I want you, Rey. I have from the start. But I also wanted my grandfather’s legacy and I didn’t know how to have both.”

“You can’t!” Rey wailed, attempting to pull her hand away from his, but he held her fast.

“I know.”

Startled by his unexpected capitulation, Rey stilled, the rant that had been building in her mind abruptly forgotten. Belatedly loosening his grip on her hands, his thumbs stroked her knuckles, as if in silent apology for their abuse. Rey felt more than saw his head dip down in front of her, attempting to draw her gaze as he spoke her name with unimaginable tenderness.

“Rey…”

Drawn against her will, Rey’s eyes met his gaze at last, noting the intense sincerity and anguish in his expressive face.

“I know I can’t have both. I know that now. And I know what’s more important to me.”

She shook her head, tears flooding her eyes as she understood the bent of his words. But she refused to believe it, refused to make faulty assumptions about his intentions yet again, refused to open herself once more to the heartbreak he’d already brought her. She couldn’t go through that again.

“Please, don’t,” she murmured, her voice soft and broken.

He suspended before her a moment longer, his eyes roaming every feature of her face but lingering especially on her mouth. She could practically see him weighing his options, debating with himself the merits of disregarding her plea and kissing her anyway. Her breath stilled in her body, knowing she wouldn’t have the strength to push him away if he chose to embrace her. Despite her better sense and vicious self-recriminations, she still longed for him, still yearned to find herself in his arms being kissed senseless, truly experiencing what she had only managed to achieve in her mind and dreams. And when his gaze dropped, his shoulders hunched, and his hands released hers, she couldn’t entirely suppress the misery-laden sob that escaped her throat.

“Alright,” he said as he backed away. “I understand.”

Rey felt her heart lurch in sudden fear that she’d driven him away for good. “What do you understand?”

“You need me to prove myself to you, and I will.”

This time, she gasped in full voice as she saw the deep determination that suddenly gripped him. And her traitorous heart soared with hope.

“Please keep Aileen safe, Rey,” he told her, his voice gentle as he continued to move back from her slowly. “If you don’t want her—”

His voice faltered completely and Rey watched, entranced, as his throat worked convulsively to contain his emotions. She witnessed his internal struggle and instinctively knew he wanted to offer to take their daughter off her hands after her birth. But there were so many reasons that would be such a horrible offer, and he knew that.

“If you don’t want her,” he repeated, his voice firm and as determined as his expression now, “then give her to Chewie. He’ll take good care of her. I won’t ask anything else of you, Rey, ever. Just…allow our daughter to be born.”

His face contorted suddenly and he swiftly turned his back on her. Overcome by this display of his heart, Rey let the tears flow uninhibited from her eyes, knowing he would not allow him their free reign. She wanted to reach out to him, wanted to admit she’d already rejected the idea of terminating the pregnancy, that just knowing she would have a daughter named Aileen had already bonded her to the barely begun life sheltered inside her body. But she couldn’t form the words, couldn’t tell him that she too knew what she wanted now and that he was an essential part of that, couldn’t overcome the fear that held her silent and immobile. And, even as she watched, his image shimmered and faded and he was gone.

“Ben!” she cried out, too late.

Crushed by grief, Rey collapsed to the floor, weeping bitterly. Despite her anguish, it did not escape her notice that, in attempting to spare herself heartache, she had caused herself more of it.

 

 

 

 

Rey cursed softly as she yanked her hand away from the power coupling, shaking off the mild shock it had given her as she glared at it. If this didn’t fix it, she was ready to tear the whole damn thing apart.

“Alright!” she called out from her position beneath the X-wing. “Try it now!”

She held her breath and…nothing happened.

“Did you hit it?” she called up to Alec in the cockpit.

“Yeah,” he called back, and Rey didn’t bother stifling her curse this time.

It _never_ took her this long to fix an X-wing. Either this thing was even more ancient and ready for permanent retirement than the rest of its cohorts, or she was really distracted and not concentrating well. With a deep, calming sigh, she firmly pushed away the thoughts that wanted to invade upon the prime territory at the forefront of her mind and forced herself to focus on the engine components in front of her.

“Alright,” she began, her voice considerably calmer now. “Let’s try—”

Rey turned aside suddenly, her heart thundering immediately in response to the binary beeps that were zipping toward her. Kneeling to catch BB-8’s spherical body in her hands, she frowned in concentration, having trouble deciphering his electronic communication in his haste.

“Poe what?” she asked, a moment before her heart plummeted.

_< Needs you in command right away.>_

_Ben_ …

Rey sprang to her feet, calling out a frantic explanation to Alec before running out of the hangar, swiping a rag along the way to clean the grease from her hands as she left BB-8 trailing behind.

Oblivious to the hurried pounding of her feet beneath her, she attempted to calm her emotions. She hadn’t seen or heard anything of Ben for a solid two weeks now, not since their unborn daughter had summoned him through the Force. With each passing day, she’d found it more and more difficult to suppress her mounting fear. He hadn’t given her any cause for alarm, per se, but it had also been clear that a plan had lodged itself in his mind. And Ben’s plans never seemed to be of the particularly _safe_ variety.

She’d attempted to comfort herself with the conviction that she’d _know_ if he’d died, would feel it beyond any measure of doubt in her soul, but that had come to small comfort when she recognized the fact that he wasn’t dead didn’t necessarily mean he was safe. An urgent and wholly unexpected summons to command was highly unusual, and Rey felt with every morsel of her being that this had something to do with Ben’s plan. Unfortunately, though, she couldn’t shake the sinking suspicion that whatever she discovered in the command center would be of little comfort either to herself, Ben, _or_ Aileen.

She finally reached central command to find it in organized chaos. A cacophony of voices came over the speakers, instantly informing Rey that a mission was in progress. Her eyes searching frantically, she finally spotted Poe hunched over a display in the thick of the chaos and she called out to him, her voice loud and firm in order to rise above the din. He straightened immediately and held up one finger to her. His wordless signal to wait, combined with the tension in his face, only heightened Rey’s already overwhelming anxiety.

“But are they _launching_?” he shouted into the air.

“No,” a voice responded promptly. “Not a single one! They’re taking potshots from the hangar door, but they don’t have any heavy artillery. They might as well be _spitting_ at us!”

The voice let out a distinctive _whoop_ and Rey’s eyes widened.

“Is that Finn?”

“Rey!” the former stormtrooper answered in Poe’s stead, clearly having heard her incredulous inquiry. “Rey, he did it! The son of a rancor actually did it!”

There was no mistaking the joy in her friend’s voice, but Rey was just confused. She turned swiftly on Poe but he only grinned widely this time before sticking that infuriating finger up in her face, telling her silently to wait once again.

“Alright,” he said, his voice firm and authoritative as he turned to Connix. “Give the order. We’re a go!”

At least four communications officers immediately began issuing commands to their fighter squadrons, but their words meant nothing to Rey. She shouted Poe’s name in frustration, holding back the wholly juvenile impulse to stamp her foot in protest as she did. At last, Poe focused upon her, coming to grip her shoulders, an irrepressible grin splitting his face.

“What’s going on?” she demanded frantically.

“Your _boyfriend_ ,” he said, giving extra weight to that entirely unexpected word, “just served up the First Order’s balls on a platter!”

Rey somehow managed to frown and raise her eyebrows at the same time. Her excessively fast heartbeat thrummed in her ears and her breathing shallowed at this confirmation that Ben had _something_ to do with what was happening. But before she could get any further information from Poe, he spun away suddenly, shouting “no” at something he’d caught from one of the communications officers behind him.

“No, _no one_ fires on _any_ shuttle or transport. If they’re evacuating, let them leave. If any TIEs launch, _then_ they can fire, but not before. We’ve given them an hour and they will have a full hour. Any pilot who violates that order will be brought up on charges immediately. No exceptions! Got it?”

A chorus of affirmations followed his command, both from the present communications officers and the disembodied voices over the speakers. Before Poe could return to Rey, though, a lackey raced up to him with a datapad, drawing his attention.

“Poe!” she cried, having reached her limit and frantically needing answers. “What’s happening?!”

Rushing to her side with an apology in his eyes, Poe swiftly guided her to a vacant seat before a holoscreen. Reaching over her shoulder, he entered a command and the screen shimmered to life.

“Watch this,” he instructed, a note of wonder in his voice.

And, suddenly, Ben’s face hovered before her. His eyes were intense, as usual, his jaw set in firm determination, but she also immediately sensed that he was calm, wholly at peace, and entirely well. She stifled a sob of sudden relief by pressing a hand to her mouth. Poe gripped her shoulder in silent support, but she hardly noticed as Ben began to speak.

“General Poe Dameron. I am Ben Solo, son of Leia Organa and Han Solo…”

Overcome by the sound of his voice and the easy and confident acknowledgement of both his given name and parentage, Rey’s eyes filled instantly with tears of joy.

“…though you know me better as Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order. I have abandoned that position and am now a wanted fugitive of the First Order.”

Rey turned in surprise and anxiety, seeking immediate reassurance from Poe that Ben was still alright, but he just nodded back at the hologram. And Rey became utterly entranced as she continued to listen.

“Before leaving the _Finalizer_ , I changed the access codes to all weapons systems and TIE fighters throughout the First Order’s fleet and…” He hesitated, a twitch at the corner of his mouth conveying a sense of ironic amusement that had her own mouth pulling into a smile. “… _neglected_ to inform anyone of the new codes. This is not a permanent handicap and General Hux will be able to overcome this inconvenience, but it will take them at least a standard solar day to circumvent the missing codes. And that should give you ample time to take whatever measures you deem appropriate.”

With the sole exception of the half-smirk, Ben had delivered his message with militaristic efficiency. But now his demeanor changed considerably. His voice faltered and his face bowed for a moment before his eyes lifted once more.

“I know you have no reason to trust me, General Dameron,” he resumed, and Rey noted the vulnerability infecting his voice now. “I urge you to verify these assertions to your satisfaction. But, if it helps you to know my motivation…”

Rey gasped softly at the sorrow that suddenly inhabited Ben’s gaze as he looked straight into the recording device and, through it, into her eyes.

“…I do this for my mother…for my father…for my uncle…”

Rey sobbed, tears flooding her eyes as she watched Ben honor the memory of each member of his family, whose deaths he had caused to one extent or another. He spoke slowly, giving each one their reverent due, and he hesitated longer before concluding his list.

“…and for Rey.”

Surrendering entirely, Rey wept freely into the shelter of her hands, her shoulders shuddering with emotions as she learned what she truly meant to him. Sniffling and impatiently brushing the tears from her face, she lifted her gaze once again as Ben’s voice resumed.

“I have included a thoroughly encrypted file with this message. I must beg your indulgence to see this file delivered to Rey. She will know how to open it.”

Turning immediately to Poe, she found him smiling gently and holding a comms unit, which he promptly handed to her. She gripped his hand in affectionate appreciation, then turned to Ben once more as he continued in a yet more somber timbre.

“I know my actions today cannot atone for the atrocities I have committed and I don’t expect them to. But my hope is that I will have engendered enough good will on your part to grant me this sole request.”

Rey looked down at the unit clutched tight in her fingers, her heart brimming with hope. Her gaze snapped up as Ben cleared his throat then, his voice returning to its initial efficiency.

“Use your time well, General Dameron. The clock _is_ ticking.”

Ben’s gaze dropped away from hers then, and a momentary flutter of static preceded the end of the recording. She took a moment to compose herself, but quickly turned to Poe, who promptly answered her question even before she uttered it.

“We contacted Hux with an ultimatum. We’re giving them one hour to abandon their Star Destroyers, then we open fire. We’ll target the external batteries first, then the TIE hangars. After that, the power cores, but only if scans show no life signs aboard. They’re completely defenseless and, after today, they’ll have no fleet and no firepower. Hux tried to bluff his way out of it, of course, but that’s what Finn was doing, confirming they have no weaponry. If they could have fired on him, they would have.”

“Why Finn?”

“He insisted. He was here when the message came in, and he immediately volunteered for the test run. I think he wanted to prove Ben’s integrity in this for you.”

Rey nodded, moved by Finn’s devotion to her. Then Poe grinned again.

“You bet your ass I wanted to do it, but… Generals don’t get to jump in an X-wing just to go blow something up.”

Rey suspected his choice of words meant something significant to Poe. The way he smiled sadly and gently shook his head, instinct told her it must have been something Leia had once said to him, and it certainly sounded like her. Tears welled again as she thought of Ben’s mother, how relieved she would have been, had her sudden illness allowed her to live long enough to see this day. And Rey couldn’t help but send a silent prayer out into the Force, letting Leia’s spirit know her son was now on a path toward the Light.

“It’s all but over, Rey,” Poe interrupted her thoughts, his voice filled with awe, “and with minimal loss of life. All because of Ben.”

Rey fought the hot stinging in her eyes this time, quickly deciding Poe had witnessed enough of her weeping for one day.

“Where is he?” she asked hopefully, only to slump in disappointment as Poe shook his head sadly.

“We don’t know. I sent a unit to search for him at the location where the transmission came from, but there was nothing there. He’d already left. He’s disappeared, Rey. And, reading between the lines of Hux’s rants, the First Order doesn’t know where he is either.”

She nodded, unable to stifle the disappointment that rounded her shoulders, one of which Poe gently but firmly gripped in encouragement.

“He’s a slippery one, Rey. He’ll be alright.”

She nodded again, her eyes falling upon the comms unit in her hand. Tracing her line of sight, Poe patted her shoulder.

“Go open it,” he encouraged her. “I gotta check in on these pilots anyway.”

Rising with renewed purpose, Rey made her way out of the command center, her pace accelerating with each step she took toward her quarters. Moving swiftly with her head bowed low, she heard shouts and cheers everywhere as news of what was happening spread throughout the compound. And she heard the name Kylo Ren more than once. She smiled proudly, pleased to know Ben’s part in all this was known and being passed along. As he’d said in his message, she didn’t know if it would be enough to excuse his past, but it was surely a step in the right direction.

As Rey reached her quarters, she secured the door behind her then focused all her attention on the comms unit in her hand. Her other hand spreading protectively over the slight bulge in her abdomen, she smiled as the brought the unit up to her mouth and spoke.

“Aileen.”

As she’d known it would, the unit sprang to life, a green light flashing twice before a projection showed two files. Smiling affectionately at the one that displayed Ben’s face in a frozen representation of the message she’d just watched, she swiftly dragged her finger through the other file. With a silent scurry of static, a set of coordinates appeared, and Rey smiled.

Hurrying to her datapad, she pulled up a star chart and entered the coordinates from the file, careful to get every number and letter just right. The moment it came back with a location on a planet she’d never heard of, she initiated a navigation computation, then grinned even wider.

“Six hours away,” she murmured, rubbing her belly absently. “Six hours, sweet baby girl, and we’ll be with Daddy.”

Downloading the nav chart onto the same comms unit so she could load it into the nav computer on the ship Poe _would_ lend her, assuming he knew what was good for him, Rey swiftly set about haphazardly throwing clothes into a bag. Within minutes, she was opening her door. Taking one last look at her quarters, she smiled, her heart swelling with hope and anticipation.

Six hours, and she would at last know what it was like to be held and kissed by the man she loved.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading my little story! I'm sorry Rey and Ben don't have any actual facetime in this one, though...
> 
> Come say hi on Tumblr at KCMarsala. I'm always happy to chat and field questions either here or there!
> 
> Thanks again for reading, and please be sure to Kudo and comment. I thrive off feedback!!!


End file.
